The Flash Review: “Trajectory”

The Flash is back, a few days ahead of his Dawn of Justice counterpart.

Title: “Trajectory”

Director: Glen Winter
Writers: Lauren Certo and Lilah Vandenburgh

Grant Gustin as Barry Allen / The Flash
Carlos Valdes as Cisco Ramon / Vibe
Candice Patton as Iris West
Danielle Panabaker as Caitlin Snow
Tom Cavanagh as Harrison Wells
Allison Paige as Eliza Harmon/Trajectory
Jesse L. Martin as Joe West
Violett Beane as Jesse Wells
Tone Bell as Scott Evans
Keiynan Lonsdale as Wally West
Teddy Sears as Jay Garrick (?)

Premise

The group go out for a night on the town and, since Zoom is currently back in his home universe, they encounter another speedster, who creates problems for the Flash.

The group learns Zoom’s identity, which reawakens Barry’s interest in crossing to another universe (I understand he’ll be doing that on Monday).

High Points

Barry has to deal with the (at least, apparent)* betrayal by yet another mentor figure, and the fact that he’s not, in fact, the Fastest Man Alive, and Gustin does a good job of depicting the character’s drive and frustration without entirely abandoning the show’s generally light tone. And while the show functions as a kind of message episode about chemical shortcuts, that element never feels forced or overdone.

Low Points

I’ll skip the excessive bad science, and we can easily blame the villain’s questionable decisions on her drug-induced insanity. Instead I’ll point out how disturbing it is that Wells jokes about making a cage for his daughter, who was until recently imprisoned by a deranged criminal. Shouldn’t the episode at least call him on that?

The Scores:

Originality: 1/6 The Flash fights a speedster; the episode ends with a kind of cliffhanger reveal.

Effects: 5/6

Acting: 5/6

Story: 5/6 We have a decent story, though the science is especially poor, even for The Flash.

Emotional Response: 5/6

Production: 5/6

Overall: 5/6 The story maintains some balance between Barry’s personal struggles and the comic-book battles. It’s not the strongest episode, but it does a nice job of combining its villain-of-the-week with the season’s overall trajectory.

In total, “Trajectory” receives 31/42

*We don’t know for certain which version of Jay Garrick this might be. I’m wondering if we’ll see a “Villain is the Future of the Hero” sort of situation.

7 replies on “The Flash Review: “Trajectory””

    • I think they were teasing the possibility that it would turn out to be Jesse Quick and it’s not like she’s going to be around again, unless he has an alter-earth counterpart.

      Maybe I should have gone for a 0 under Originality.

      • I mean, the Big Bad for both seasons so far have been speedsters, and granted, it’s possible a whole bunch of the speedsters we’ve seen were in fact Jay Garrick, but enough already with the speedsters.

        Plus, to be honest, the way she lead them to the whole Jay thing was a BIT forced.

        Now I know they need to balance the Earth2 episodes with some slow (hah!) ones, but…

    • I must be the divergent view. I liked the fact that it was a speedster but it was a “fake” speedster. It wasnt another Zoom or Reverse-Flash. It was someone who took a drug to be fast and then it wore off.

      The needed a way to link Earth2 Zoom to a motivation and this wasn’t as bad a reveal as it could have been.

      • I must be the divergent view. I liked the fact that it was a speedster but it was a “fake” speedster. It wasnt another Zoom or Reverse-Flash. It was someone who took a drug to be fast and then it wore off.

        She was still faster than Barry, the multiverse’s slowest speedster.

  1. It was OK but at times underwhelming. The “don’t do drugs” angle seemed a bit heavy-handed to me.

    The reveal and connection to Zoom was OK, but they still all jump to conclusions about who/when/what Jay it is (or a twin)

    To paraphrase a certain other DC property… “You either die a Hero, or you live long enough to see your future villain self to travel back in time to cause trouble.”

    • It was OK but at times underwhelming. The “don’t do drugs” angle seemed a bit heavy-handed to me.

      And disingenuous since the best argument for Barry not taking the drug was the fact it had cost Jay his speed.

      The reveal and connection to Zoom was OK, but they still all jump to conclusions about who/when/what Jay it is (or a twin)

      And we still have the man in the iron mask, is there yet another Jay?

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